With animal ears
by GamblingDementor
Summary: 30 day OTP challenge: Day ten, your OTP with animal ears. Varrick and Zhu Li go to the birthday party of Bolin's son.


Of all the things Varrick and Zhu Li had argued about, she never expected the dress policy of a child's birthday party to be one. They were supposed to arrive at Yuudai's party at two, it was already ten to two and they were running late thanks to Varrick.

"Varrick, I _told_ you it was a costume party."

"I know! I just forgot! I'm only human, Zhu Li!"

She sighed, pinching the brink of her nose.

"Here's what we're going to do. We are going to open the costume chest. The twins have it in their bedroom. Don't you?"

The little boys nodded.

"We'll find something there. We have five minutes. Go!"

The children ran across the hall to the stairs to the first floor. Varrick and Zhu Li had to walk pretty briskly too. They had little time.

"Mommy, look what I found!"

Kukicha was holding up a platypus-bear outfit, grinning from ear to ear.

"That's great, sweetie, now put it on real quick."

The girl nodded and trotted away.

"Funny she should choose that particular one," Varrick whispered in Zhu Li's ear, "I'm pretty sure she was the one we conceived inside Ping Ping."

Zhu Li glared at him, still annoyed that he had forgotten to buy costumes when she'd asked him, and he looked away.

A couple minutes later, all four children were dressed up and even though Zhu Li was still rather upset, her heart started to melt when she saw how adorable they actually were. Not that it was surprising. Their children were the most beautiful and perfect creatures in the world.

"Very good. Now let's go."

"Wait a minute here, tiger seal. What about us?"

"We don't have costumes, Varrick. You forgot to buy them."

Her voice was a lot drier than she wanted.

"I've got an idea!" Aricka shouted.

Sometimes Zhu Li felt that there were two volume options on her oldest: loud and mute, which basically meant asleep. But that was part of Aricka's charms after all. Her daughter searched through the chest and pulled out two headbands.

"These are perfect!" she said and handed them to her parents.

They were animal ears. Zhu Li had been given tiger seal ears and Varrick polar bear dog's. Zhu Li shrugged and put them on. It was better than nothing.

They arrived at Bolin's place ten minutes late. They would have arrived almost on time if she had listened to Varrick and gone overspeed but she valued her life and the life of her children above punctuality, even though she did like arriving on time when she could.

"Are you excited for the party, kids?" Varrick asked and they cried out a loud yes.

Zhu Li had to admit that hearing them so happy and cheerful calmed her down almost completely. She was even a little bit excited herself when she parked the car and Varrick knocked. The door opened just enough for a tiny head to peep through the space. Then the girl shut it back with force and they heard her voice through the wall.

"DADDY, VARRICK'S HERE!"

A few seconds later, Bolin, who was somehow wearing an airbender outfit, opened the door with a very enthusiastic Yuudai clamped on his back. When he saw the guests, he jumped off his dad, or rather flew, and landed on the doorstep.

"Happy birthday!" They all said at once, and he gave them a big hug.

"Come on, come on! The party is just starting!" Bolin cried out and they all stepped inside.

Most people were not yet there when they entered the living room, which made Zhu Li feel slightly better about arriving late.

"Varrick, Zhu Li, you made it!"

Opal was smiling, as always. Zhu Li had grown to really like her. She was sweet, with a rough side to her when upset, but put her heart into everything she did and was an amazing mother. Right now, she was wearing a beautiful outfit in the style of the upper ring of Ba Sing Se.

"I see you really outdid yourself with the costume, guys."

"Well, kid, that's actually my fault. We were supposed to be wearing matching outfits as a family, but I forgot about it."

"Yeah, Dad blew it," Aricka said and Varrick smirked.

"Now, where is the birthday boy? I have a little something for him."

"He's in his room with Kukicha," Tashi said.

He was Bolin's second son and usually kept silent, and Zhu Li liked him for that. He was a very sweet little boy.

"What?!" Varrick shouted. "What's he doing with my baby?"

"Relax, Varrick. She's his best friend. He probably wanted to show her one of his new airbending tricks."

"I don't go into my best friend's bedroom!"

"Well, that's not true at all," Bolin interrupted, "you've been in my room more times than I can count."

"That's not the same!"

Varrick and Bolin went on to half argue half laugh about the children's potential inappropriate behaviour. Zhu Li scoffed internally. As if. Sure, Kukicha and Yuudai really liked each other, but they were also six years old. At that age, children were mostly only really good friends, and nothing more. She was not worried in the least. With all the time Kukicha spent at Bolin's, it would actually be a surprise if she and his children did not get along.

In the end, it was indeed to show her an airbending trick that he'd taken her to his room. He had a few marbles that he managed to make spin in a circle between his hands. He showed everyone, actually, more than once. In the end, they all had a great time. Zu and Lee managed to be adorably polite until Zhu Li realized that they had been stealing candies from all the other children. They tried to argue that, considering they were dressed up as pirates, it was only natural that they steal things from others, but Zhu Li would have none of it. She made them give back everything they had taken and asked that they stopped doing anything mischievous. It worked for about thirty seconds before she caught Lee waterbending tea around the room to try and get people wet on purpose.

They spent a great afternoon. Granted, Varrick spent almost all of his time between joking around with Bolin and Aricka and being all loving and cuddly with herself, to try and make up for the missed opportunity of the costumes. The ears weren't too bad, really. It was a good thing they owned some animal ears that fitted adults. People definitely commented on it, but Zhu Li did not really care. The cake was good, the party was good, the children had tremendous fun and so did Varrick. When they finally left, late at night, Bolin gave them huge bags of candies as party presents and Zhu Li saw Varrick eye them eagerly before she put them away.

"Well that was nice," he said once back home, as they all changed out of their outfits.

"I like Yuudai," Kukicha said and Varrick frowned, though he said nothing.

"I can't believe he's six already," Zhu Li said.

"Don't worry, Mommy, I'll be seven in two months, so I'll be older than him again."

Age did not really work that way, but Zhu Li said nothing.

"Well, in any case, I think it's time for sleep for you all. You should go to bed, sweeties."

"Aren't we going to get even one candy?" Kukicha asked with koala-puppy eyes.

Zhu Li weighted the pros and cons, and smiled.

"You can each have one. Then you'll brush your teeth and go to bed."

The children all lined up to get candy. Bolin always had the best, admittedly. He was a sweet tooth, so was Varrick, and so were all of their children.

Once they were tucked in bed, after Varrick told them a story, Zhu Li went to bed herself. Varrick took some time to come, and when he did, the pockets of his pajamas were bulging. And when he thought she wasn't looking from behind the book she was reading, he popped a candy into his mouth.

"Really, Varrick?"

His eyes widened and he swallowed the candy whole, and coughed violently at that − it was a pretty big candy to swallow in one piece.

"Well, forgive me, tiger seal! I have needs!"

"You _need _to steal our children's candy?"

"Oh no, those are candies Bolin gave me. They're mine."

"… I think I'll never understand your friendship fully."

He winked at her and popped another candy into his mouth before kissing her all of a sudden.

"We just like sweet things."

He kissed her again. His mouth tasted like honey and spun sugar. As he removed the book from her hands and threw it on the floor, as his hands grabbed her waist and pulled her to him, as his tongue filled her mouth with sweetness, she had to admit that she liked sweet things too. Her sweet Varrick, for example.


End file.
